I had several stones at the start of this millennium, for 5 years or so. No VC, no supplements to speak of. In 2010 I started olive oil & no more stones. Olive oil 1 - 2 oz every day. "Burn your throat" real EVOO.I have been on 20 to 25 gr of VC for a year, no stones now either.

I had this argument with my primary physician, who's a nephrologist, recently. I went to PubMed and searched for papers on renal calculi and ascorbate. I did not find a single paper with data supporting causation. There is only a very small number--two or three--of case studies but the patients are in ill health already and it is difficult to make a causal link between their quite modest ascorbate levels and stones. I did find published arguments providing a plausible causal link ascorbate->oxalate->renal cacluli, but then the data showing strongly elevated oxalate are missing. The only data are showing modest rises in oxalate at modest doses of ascorbate. Orthomolecular doses have not been well studied but it appears that the large doses of ascorbate only cause modest elevations in oxalate as well. My conclusion is that it is very unlikely that consumption of large quantities of ascorbate will lead to kidney stones. You can't say never, but the risk appears to be very small unless one is a stone-former already. But then a stone-former already has to avoid healthy foods, such as spinach, that contain higher levels of oxalate, too.

OK did you actually watch the video to the end where he sites the studies? The reason I'm concerned is for my age my kidney function borders on normal and be low normal. For instance when I was eating the standard American diet my EGR was mid 50's which is flagged on my blood test. When I did plant based diet for 6 months it went up into the mid 60' s which no longer flagged as below normal for my age. But now I'm no longer plant based I have to worry about my kidneys and stones. Thanks for info.Ken

guitarplayer007 wrote:OK did you actually watch the video to the end where he sites the studies? The reason I'm concerned is for my age my kidney function borders on normal and be low normal. For instance when I was eating the standard American diet my EGR was mid 50's which is flagged on my blood test. When I did plant based diet for 6 months it went up into the mid 60' s which no longer flagged as below normal for my age. But now I'm no longer plant based I have to worry about my kidneys and stones. Thanks for info.Ken

No, I did not watch the video and won't. If you want to link the studies here I'm sure we will all get a chuckle.

The link I provided you should make you realize you have no higher chance of kidney stones than the general public. If anything its the opposite.

If you have something we should look at please link us to it. No need to make us go through so many steps. Please provide us the link. I don't suggest things to you without a link or a copy and paste the info for us.

The physician with the most clinical experience recommending high vitamin C to his patients reports that in his practice (of more than 14,000+ patients), no kidney stones, and those who had kidney stones had no more problems after starting high-dose vitamin C:

Rpbert Cathcart wrote:COMPLICATIONS

It is my experience that ascorbic acid probably prevents most kidney stones. I have had a few patients who had had kidney stones before starting bowel tolerance doses who have subsequently had no more difficulty with them. Acute and chronic urinary tract infections are often eliminated; this fact may remove one of the causes of kidney stones. Six patients have had mild pain on urination; five of these patients were over fifty and none had stones.

Pauling studied the issue and reported in HTLLAFB that kidney stones don't form in pH neutral urine. If you are worried, measure your first morning urine (which has been in the bladder for a few hours), and if your urine is acidic - you can switch some of the ascorbic acid to sodium ascorbate.